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Towards the end of 2012, a 22-year-old Marius Lauber, working under
the moniker Roosevelt, quietly released his debut single, Sea. A
pulsating, hypnotising slither of sun-kissed disco with its own
self-made video, it steadily tiptoed across the blog world, eventually
reaching the ears of hugely respected electronic pop label Greco-Roman
(co-run by Hot Chip's Joe Goddard), who would go on to sign him and
subsequently release his debut EP, Elliot. Sea was the first example of
the happenstance that's dotted his career so far, helping him move from
playing in guitar bands as a teenager to being one of the most exciting
prospects dance music has to offer, as showcased by his forthcoming
self-titled debut album (released by Greco-Roman/City Slang). With
coverage from the likes of Pitchfork and Thump, over 5 million Spotify
streams and 1 Million YouTube plays, support tours with Hot Chip and
Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs and a litany of high-profile festival
slots around the world, Lauber has steadily built up a dedicated
following drawn to the forward movement of his expansive, dreamy
productions. Written, recorded and produced solely by Lauber over a
period of two years, and mixed by Chris Coady (Future Islands / Beach
House), ”Roosevelt”, the album, is a pillow-soft hallucinatory
dreamscape taking in acid funk, nocturnal reveries and a lilting sense
of melancholia.

Playing drums in mainly guitar-heavy school bands in his teenage
years, a move to Cologne by himself at the age of 19 permanently shifted
his relationship with dance music as he was slowly educated by its
hypnotic and steady repetition. His immersion into that world was so
complete that he soon became resident DJ at Kompakt’s Total Confusion
party with Superpitcher & Michael Mayer. It helped Lauber realise
how dance music connects to its audience in a different way to what he'd
experienced in his various bands. “What I really enjoyed about DJ-ing was that you could see the results immediately,” he explains. “Before
it was about playing in a cool band and people would come and see it
but often there would be no feedback or interaction really between
people. That's why I instantly connected to dance music.” That's not
to say that he's completely ditched his guitar past, as all of
Roosevelt's songs – from the percussive shuffle of Moving On to the soft
shimmer of Close to the undulating disco of Night Moves - feature
layers and layers of delicately constructed guitar playing that weaves
in and out of metronomic beats and expanding synths. “I'm not consciously trying to meld those two worlds, it's all a really natural process.”
Lauber says. Although the debut album feels indebted to 4/4 dance
music, listeners will hear a progression towards sophisticated, classic
song structures.

Even the darkness hinted at in the title of ’Night Moves’ is more
about the energy you can get from peaking in a club at just the right
time. “It's about the situation at night in a club when the energy is created as the night comes to an end,” he says. “The
later the night gets there's this peak of energy and people are having
the illusion that there's no end to it and that power is incredibly
strong.” The album is also underpinned by a sense of movement and
forward motion, not just in the way the melodies unfurl and expand, but
also in the way the impressionistic lyrics are constructed. So while
Moving On makes this idea explicit (“You’re Moving On / It’s alright to
see this on my own / Just let me go / I got out of here to reach for
more”), it's also there in the delicious swirl of Fever as he sings,
“Fading back into the night / No nothings gonna hold us down / Leaving
all the rest behind.” A circular musical journey and the shifting of
time are also embedded in the fabric of the album's influences,
specifically in the way it feels international – a pinch of French
dance-pop here, a smattering of LA yacht rock there – but also
underpinned by German electronica pioneers like Manuel Göttsching, Ash
Ra Tempel and Neu!

In contrast to the use of a full live band on stage, the studio environment is Lauber’s sole domain, bringing the musical journey that started with him producing his own school band, full circle. “I'm a bit of a control freak, but I've learnt how to trust people with stuff outside of the music,” he says referring to his involvement in the artwork and videos, plus the fact the album has taken two years to make. “When I was making the album I had to get away from it. At some point I was sitting in the studio listening to 200 snare sounds and those moments happen all the time, especially when you work at night and you don't have a break.” For Lauber, Roosevelt is all about trying to capture and keep that same magic that inspired ’Sea’; of trying to keep pop music pure and instinctive. “You can lose the point if you overthink it in the studio - I tried to keep a naive and impulsive touch on this album“

Tracklist

Intro1:31

Wait Up4:22

Night Moves4:57

Belong3:57

Moving On4:43

Heart4:05

Colours4:20

Sea4:26

Daytona2:53

Fever4:24

Hold On3:27

Close3:40

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